A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked the administration to fast-track investigation into corruption cases, the Income Tax department raided premises of Hilal Rather son of former finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather in Kashmir and Jammu in alleged loan misappropriation and tax evasion cases, officials said.
“In Kashmir, IT raids pertained to alleged misappropriationof loans taken from the J&K Bank by Hilal and persons linked to him,” theysaid.
Hilal’s father was the finance minister in the NCgovernment.
A statement issued by the IT department said “search andseizure” operation was conducted on a “prominent business group based inSrinagar”, covering “four premises in the Kashmir Valley and six places inJammu”.
The statement said “10 other business premises in Ludhiana,NCR and Jammu belonging to parties that have actively assisted the main taxevader in concealing his income and indulging in illegal activities have alsobeen covered under survey action.”
“The group is engaged in the business of real estate andinformation technology. There were allegations of large-scale diversion andmisappropriation of loan taken from J&K Bank by the group,” the statementsaid.
“During the search, it was detected that the tax evader hasbeen given illegal benefit of Rs 60 crore by J&K Bank. His outstanding loanof Rs 190 crore was settled at Rs 130 crore, although he did not deserve anyconcessional treatment,” it reads.
The statement adds: “Even the reduced bank liability haseither been defaulted by him or the repayment has been facilitated by activeconnivance of bank officials who have ever-greened his loan account by lendingto third parties, who, in turn, gave their loaned funds to the tax evaderthrough dubious financial transactions with him”.
“During the search operation, evidence was found that themain promoter was a director in a Dubai based company. He is also holding andoperating a foreign bank account. Neither his interest in the Dubai company northe foreign bank account has ever been disclosed by him in his tax returns,”the statement adds.
“He is likely to face action under the Black Money(Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 as wellas other relevant laws of the land for deliberate omission to declare foreigninvestment as mandated by law,” it adds.
Field enquires have also revealed, the statement said, the”tax evader has sold/booked part of his real estate project of Paradise Avenuenear Jammu against unaccounted cash”.
“The cash component has neither been disclosed in taxreturns by purchasers of the flats of Paradise Avenue nor has he disclosedthese receipts in his books of accounts. Other than the Paradise Avenueproject, the tax evader has also undertaken real estate transactions in hispersonal capacity or in the name of family members wherein allegedly more thanRs 7 crore of unaccounted cash has changed hands,” the statement said.
The statement said that during the demonetisation period,the group had made cash deposits of Rs 1.44 crore, whose source could not beexplained by the main promoter during the “course of action”.
IT officials also raided residential and commercial proprietieslinked with Congress leader Janak Raj Gupta, who died in 2015.
Teams also conducted simultaneous raids at a prominentjeweler’s shop at Lakhdatta Bazar area.
An official said that the residence of a prominent jewelerin Gandhi Nagar area was also raided.
The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry expresseddispleasure over “deliberate targeting” of businessmen in Jammu.
In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is on atwo-day visit to Kashmir, JCCI President Rakesh Gupta conveyed Chamber’s protest.
“It has become a common practice to conduct raids at thepremises of business people particularly in Jammu province which has left usperplexed, baffled and astonished,” the Chamber president said.
“The JCCI always stood by the government and stronglybelieve that the tax collections are imperative for nation building,” he said.
“There has been a practice in the business world to observesummer holidays for three to five days in the month of June. It is surprisingthat even during holiday period the IT department and state taxes departmentare targeting the honest tax payers and even raiding the closed establishmentsthus spoiling family holidays and sitting at the closed premises waiting forthe owners to come back from their holidays,” Gupta said.
He added that ahead of Shri Amarnath Yatra such actions bythe tax departments are “spoiling the peaceful atmosphere and leaving one andall in a chaotic situation”.
ACB registers case in loan fraud case
Meanwhile, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Jammu Thursday bookedmanagement, officers and officials of J&K Bank along with illegalbeneficiaries involved in financial irregularities/loan fraud worth crores ofrupees and conducted searches at various premises, an official statement said.
It said a joint surprise check was conducted by ACB onaccount of allegations of financial irregularities committed by officers andofficials of J&K Bank, wherein it was revealed that various loan facilitieswere extended to proprietors of a partnership firm M/s Paradise Avenue during2012 to 2017, in contravention to laid down procedures and resultantly the loanaccounts turned into NPA.
“During checking it was found that proprietors of the firmapproached J&K Bank, Branch New University Campus Jammu for availing ofloan facility of Rs 74.27 crore for setting up a residential township complexunder the name and style of ‘Paradise Avenue’ at Narwal, Jammu consisting of 52flats in each of the towers named Eden & Zion. The loan amount wassanctioned on 30.01.2012 with one of the pre requisite conditions that it hasto be disbursed in a phased manner after securing margin of Rs 22.09 coreincluding unsecured loan of Rs 2 core from borrowers on pro-rata basis,” thestatement said.
On scrutiny of records it surfaced that loan was infact sanctioned by the Bank in January2012 which paved way for the firm to purchase 30 kanals of land from differentland owners through registered sale deeds in July 2012 after a gap of sixmonths from sanctioning of loan in favour of the firm meaning thereby that theloanee firm had no title of land in its name when the loan was sanctioned whichhad to be mortgaged to the bank, the statement said, adding under a predesigned conspiracy hatched by the loanee firm with the bank officials, theamount of sale consideration reflected in the sale deed was shown paid throughcheques to the land owners fraudulently and dishonestly with inflated cost ofthe land whereas, those cheques were actually taken back from the land ownersand fresh cheques were issued to them from the loan account of M/s ParadiseAvenue and loan account of Shree Simula Solutions, other sister concerns of theleading partner of the firm with objective to buy land in question out of theloan amount alone sanctioned by the bank.
“Since, the proprietors of the firm and the bank officialswere fully aware about the rules/norms governing the subject that the loanamount cannot be sanctioned against purchase of land for raising of residentialtownship which is a commercial activity, they in league with the bank officialsof the branch in order to seek release of the loan amount had also issuedletters addressed to the bank indicating therein that the land owners hadsupplied construction material to the firm whereas in actual no such materialhad been in fact purchased by the firm from the suppliers. These were in factsham transactions with motive to siphoning off the bank money,” the statementsaid.
It said on further scrutiny of bank records it surfaced thatas per terms and conditions the bank was to release the amount in phasedmanner, however, by March 2014, it had instead made 100% disbursement in firstphase only thereby conferring undue pecuniary advantage upon the beneficiaryfirm. The statement said the firm borrowed three additional loans worth 68.91crores, 20 crores and 14.5 crores.
“Hence in total the proprietors of the firm managed toobtain Rs 177.68 crore loan illegally and fraudulently in connivance with bankmanagement. The repayment of the loanwas to start from September 2017 with a quarterly installment of Rs 11.27crore, however, the proprietors turned willful defaulters by not makingrepayment with sole objective to get their loan account declared into NPA andconsequently they succeeded in their goal wherein on 31.12.2017 loan accountwas declared NPA by the bank management,” the statement said.
“The deep rooted conspiracy between bank management andbeneficiary firm is evident from the fact that principal loan of Rs 177.68crore was settled at Rs 130 crore under One Time Settlement (OTS) illegally andagainst the bank norms thereby the bank management by abuse of their authoritywaived off Rs 50 crore on principal amount which has inflicted a huge loss tothe bank. Even in response to OTS, the cheque issued by the borrower for Rs 40crore towards OTS has bounced,” said the statement.
“…consequently a formal case FIR No. 13/2019 was registeredin P/S ACB Jammu for investigation. After the registration of the case searcheswere conducted at various premises of individual and companies connected withthe firm after obtaining search warrants from the court. During search,incriminating material such as laptops/documents were seized. The investigationof the case is going on,” said the statement.